Serial Number: 88368 Eddie Lang

Year shipped: 1932

FON: 201

Headstock: Horizontal ‘The Gibson’ logo

Neck/fingerboard: 19 fret fingerboard with pointed end and wide pearloid block inlays from the third fret

Body: Maple back and sides

Hardware: Gold-plated metal parts including wrap-over tailpiece and individual open-back Grover 98G ‘Sta-tite’ tuners with butterbean keys. Long bound pickguard

Notes: According to Robb Lawrence, who currently owns this L-5, it was Eddie Lang’s guitar. Replacement endpin, missing pickguard. A hairline crack at the neck heel and a few grain-line cracks at the soundholes have been resealed There is some light overspray and a strap pin has been removed from the back of the headstock and the hole filled. The trapeze tailpiece has a newly machined crossbar (the original is stored in the case). Has original hardshell case.

Joe Spann adds “Serial number 88368 is too early to be found in the remaining Gibson shipping ledgers but I can tell you the following: batch 201 would have been produced in late February of 1932 and serial number 88368 would have shipped in March of 1932. This means that the L-5 guitar in question was built then shipped immediately.”

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Images courtesy of Robb Lawrence, pictured above with the guitar